January 11, 2010

Pickled Nozawana/野沢菜漬け

Can you guess what's in this large plastic container?この大きなプラスチック容器に何が入っているか分かりますか？When you open the lid, you will first see a weight and a plastic board (not visible in the photo) beneath it.蓋を開けると、最初に重しとその下のプラスチックの板（写真では見えない）が見えます。When you take them out, you will see this:それらを取り出すと、これが見えます。Pickled nozawana, well, a lot of it!野沢菜漬けがいっぱい！The pickled nozawana was given to us by BIL last November. It retained its original vivid green for some time, but it has now turned amber. It has turned sour, too. It's still good as tsukemono, and you can also remove some salt from it and use it for a variety of dishes. この野沢菜漬けは去年の11月に義理の兄からもらったものです。しばらくはもともとの鮮やかな緑色でしたが、今では「べっこう色」になってしまいました。また酸っぱくなってしまいました。まだ漬物としても美味しいし、少し塩抜きをして、色々な料理に使うこともできます。I finely chopped some pickled nozawana, put it in a bowl full of water to remove some salt, and drained it. I like to mix it with natto.野沢菜漬けを少し細かく切って、水の入ったボールに入れ、塩抜きし、水を切りました。私は納豆と混ぜるのが好きです。

2 comments:

Hello Hiroyuki, I am writing a blog post on Nozawana pickles and would love to link to your blog posts on nozawana. This summer I will grow nozawana variety brassica here in Washington State (USA) and will make my own. If you would describe the flavor of nozawana pickles I would love to quote you. Thank you, Ryan from howtoferment.com

Flavor of nozawana pickles? That's kind of hard to answer. As I suggested in this post, nozawana pickles can be enjoyed in two different ways. In the initial stage where they are salty but not sour, they are green and crunchy. They are good with hot rice. In the subsequent stage where they turn sour due to lactic fermentation, they are amber and less crunchy. They are still good with hot rice, but can also be desalted and stir-fried, for example.